Google faces Brazil fine for providing forum in which defamation could take place

Google has been fined in Brazil for allowing a user of its Orkut
social networking service to defame a priest. Google is partly
responsible for the user's post, the court is reported to have
said.27 Apr 2010

"By making space available on virtual networking sites, in which users can post any type of message without any checks beforehand, with offensive and injurious content, and, in many cases, of unknown origin, [Google] assumes the risk of causing damage [to other people]," the judge said, according to the report.

The comments concerned an un-named priest who was called a paedophile and a thief with a lover in a posting on Orkut. The priest sued in 2008 and won his case. The recent ruling backs that lower court's decision.

Google was fined $8,500 in the case, the report said. The comment was made anonymously.